Every Day is Silent and Gray - Complete

Chapter 4

"Please, Dimitri, let me," Lissa said, her previous aloofness forgotten as she benevolently laid her hand on Dimitri's jaw. You watched as his swollen, distended lips shrank, Lissa's Spirit willing them back into their usual, handsome state.

"Thank you, Princess," he murmured, giving her a grateful look.

"Yeah, thanks, Liss," you acknowledged, taking advantage of Dimitri's healed lips to kiss them yet again. Guiding you across to the sofa, Dimitri pulled you onto his lap, your thighs straddling his. His arms snaked around you, your lips joined, you were seeking solace in one another. "I was so worried," you breathlessly confessed when you pulled back momentarily, your lips and words hidden in your love's hair.

"I knew you would be," Dimitri replied quietly, giving you an apologetic look.

"You could have texted!"

"I wanted to, but my phone was nearly flat, and I needed to save the battery for my alarm."

"Well, didn't that work out well?" you replied sarcastically. "Instead of sending me a text to tell me you were sleeping in my bed and thinking about me, which would have saved me from worrying, you set an alarm which failed to go off, so I worried even more."

"I'm sorry," Dimitri replied sheepishly. "It was late, and I was tired."

"You promise nothing happened between you and Tasha?" you checked, wanting to hear it from his lips a second time.

"Not a thing. I promise, Roza."

You cuddled against Dimitri's chest; your face nuzzled into his neck as Lissa sat at the other end of the sofa, Christian perched on the armrest behind her. You couldn't be angry at Dimitri. While his actions had been indubitably ill-considered, for the first time in a long time, you felt at peace; as though, despite a decidedly anfractuous journey, everything in your life had finally reached its preordained position.

"So, does this mean you two are together?" Lissa asked, a Pantagruelian grin on her pale, Moroi face. If you'd ever had reason to doubt Lissa's desire for your happiness, her smile now was more than enough to correct your fallacious thoughts.

"If Rose will have me, yes it does," Dimitri replied categorically, pulling you harder against him.

"Of course I'll have you," you replied, putting one hand on either side of his face and guiding his lips to yours once again. You were thus situated when you heard footsteps on the stairs, and Tasha rounded the corner into the living room to find you and Dimitri amorously engaged, Lissa and Christian looking on with abundant satisfaction.

Tasha's face when she saw you affectionately perched on Dimitri's lap, his strong arms wrapped around you in a lover's embrace, was almost enough to make up for the interminable hours of purgatory when you'd fretted he'd been involved in some similar sort of activity with her. You wanted to be the better person—to be magnanimous in your victory. But then you remembered Tasha's look of conquest when she'd arrived—how she'd intentionally misrepresented the situation for no reason other than vanquishing your hopes—and you felt a lot less clement. She must have known when Dimitri appeared he would confirm nothing had happened between them. So, her misleading comments had been nothing but malice—serving no purpose other than to wound and hurt.

"Good morning Lady Ozera," you chirped, still sitting astride Dimitri—your cheery tone and blissful expression your ultimate act of obstrigillation.

"Tasha," Dimitri likewise acknowledged, although his voice was wary.

"So where did you end up last night?" Tasha asked with an insincere air of unconcern. "I woke up in your bed, but I was alone."

Even now she was trying to imply something had happened. But you were confident of the veracity of Dimitri's word. You would not let Tasha's insinuations perturb you again. There was only going to be one winner in this monomachy, and it would not be Tasha.